What Does “Faith” Mean?

Faith!

Scripture tells us we must have faith in God:

  • In Genesis 15, God promises the childless Abram that his offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. And Abram “believed the LORD [had faith in Him], and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).
  • The apostle Paul tells us: “By grace you have been saved, through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).
  • The same apostle tells the Philippian jailer, “Believe in [have faith in] the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

We could cite hundreds of other examples.

But Scripture also tells us of those who have some sort of faith but are not saved. Jacob recently preached from Acts 8, which tells of a magician named Simon who believed and was baptized. But he then tries to buy from the apostles the ability to give Holy Spirit through laying on hands. Peter tells him, “You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God” (Acts 8:21).

So what is true, biblical faith? What’s the difference between the ineffective faith of Simon and the effective faith of Abram?

Hebrews 11 is sometimes called “Faith’s Hall of Fame.” The author considers numerous characters from biblical history, again and again stating what they do “by faith.” So let’s learn about faith from this great chapter.

What is Faith in Hebrews 11?  

Let’s begin by noting three ways our culture uses the word “faith” that differ from the way the word is used in this chapter.

First: Our culture uses “faith” as a synonym for “religion.”

We today speak of the “Jewish faith” or the “Christian faith” or the “Muslim faith.” But Hebrews 11 is not telling us that Abel and Abraham and Moses did these acts “by religion.”

Second: Our culture uses “faith” to mean a personal, subjective commitment.

We call someone a “person of faith,” and we speak of “faith-based organizations.” We’ll encourage someone: “Have faith!”

When we use the word in this way, the object of faith is seemingly unimportant. Rather, the commitment itself is what is vital.

Faith in this sense is never commended in Scripture. Rather: God is commended, Jesus is commended, and the true object of our faith is emphasized.

So Peter at Pentecost says the apostles are eyewitnesses of the risen Jesus (Acts 2:32); Paul writes, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only [which would be the case if we benefit solely by subjective commitment], we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

Third: In some Christian circles, “faith” has become a synonym for “profession of faith.”

As if Paul had written, “By grace you are saved through profession of faith.”

But as noted above, in Acts 8 Simon professes faith and is baptized – but is not saved. Similarly, Jesus Himself says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

“Faith” in Hebrews 11 does not mean “religion,” does not mean a personal, subjective commitment, and does not mean simply “profession of faith.”

Before turning to the chapter, however, we also must note that Hebrews uses the word “faith” a bit differently from the apostle Paul. Paul emphasizes faith in Jesus as the Redeemer – the One Who died as a sacrifice for sins, whom God raised from the dead. Even when Paul speaks of an Old Testament character like Abraham, he emphasizes faith being credited to him as righteousness, based on the work of the promised Redeemer. Hebrews 11, on the other hand, describes Old Testament men and women who had faith – some of whom knew almost nothing about the coming Redeemer.

So the word “faith” is used in a broader sense in Hebrews: These believers all grasp the reality of what God has promised and hold onto that reality in the midst of distractions, temptations, and lengthy delays in the fulfillment of those promises.

With that understanding, consider Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen” (CSB, emphasis added).

The author emphasizes faith is based on a reality. Faith is based on objective truth. Thus, the “hope” is not a wish or desire, but a certain expectation based on God’s revelation. God reveals who He is, what He is like. He displays that in history. And He makes promises about the future consistent with that revealed character. Faith takes that revelation, those promises – and enables us to hold on to them as certain, as real, as true.

Let me emphasize that again: Faith is not trying to convince yourself of something that is doubtful. Rather, faith is you grasping what is really true and holding on to it. Others may not see that reality – but you know it by faith, you trust the Revealer, the One Who promises.

Let me use a trivial analogy to clarify the point.

Do you see a figure when you look at a full moon?

Some see nothing but dark blobs on a light background. But commonly in our culture people see the face of a man looking down, the “man in the moon.” In East Africa, people instead see the entire body of rabbit.

When at age 20 I taught school in Kenya, folks tried to convince me there was a picture of a rabbit in the moon. They would say, “Just look! It’s really there!” But my brain was conditioned to see the man, and try as I might, I couldn’t see the rabbit.

But after a few days, something clicked – the rabbit was there. And it’s actually much clearer than the man!

Just so with faith. We don’t initially see the reality of Who God is. We just close our eyes and refuse to see; or we may squint and peer and, try as we might, not see. But then God opens our eyes and we see truth, the reality, and embrace His promises. We have faith – a confidence that comes from the reality that is truly there.

Faith is a spiritual tasting, a spiritual seeing of the goodness of God, the beauty of God, the majesty of God, the grace of God: “Taste and see that the LORD is good!” (Psalm 34:8).

The author continues in 11:2: “For by [faith] the people of old received their commendation.” Their commendation not from one another, but from God. The chapter goes on to describe men and women who obey God. But the author’s point is not obedience in and of itself. Rather, the author emphasizes that this type of faith leads to faithfulness, which in turn leads to obedience.

So that is faith in Hebrews 11.

How Does Hebrews 11 Encourage Us to Have Faith?

The author has just said: “You need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised” (Hebrews 10:36 CSB).

Hebrews 11 is a series of illustrations of that point. We are to endure in faith and so worship God and delight in Him today; love our neighbors today; flee from sin today; and finally on the last day receive all God’s remaining promises.

Each character cited in the chapter endures in faith; each gives us an example to follow.

But the chapter is more than a series of examples. The author arranges the material chronologically, thereby highlighting God’s plan, with each individual story providing one more step in the movement of history towards the fulfillment of all God’s promises.

So the author is saying more than, “Have faith like Abel, like Enoch, like Noah, like Abraham!” He is also saying, “See God’s plan being worked out in all these lives! He continues to work it out today, bringing about all His promises!”

After telling the stories of ten individuals who take part in God’s plan, in Hebrews 11:32-40 the author steps back, speaking of two categories of people: Those who had great success in this world through faith in God, and those who lost everything in this world through faith in God. God commends those in both categories for their faith. But none receive all God’s promises. That is reserved until we too become part of God’s faithful people.

Then at the beginning chapter 12 the author exhorts us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. He is the ultimate person of faith. He endured the cross for the joy set before Him of seeing all God’s promises fulfilled. We are to endure in faith like Him.

So: Don’t let our culture’s use of the word “faith” obscure the biblical meaning. God has revealed Himself as He truly is. God has privileged us by giving us a summary of His plan for this creation, and by including us beneficiaries of that great plan. Let us then have an enduring faith in that reality, and so lead faithful lives, delighting to obey Him and to display Him, thereby hastening the coming of that final Day when He fulfills every promise, summing up all things in Christ.

[This devotion is based on part of a sermon on Hebrews 11:1-4 preached October 11, 2020. The audio of that sermon is available via this link.]

Hope for the Hopeless

Think back to a day of great pain – a day of hopelessness, of despair. A day when you lost a loved one – or a loved one betrayed you. A day it seemed as if God didn’t care for you – or He didn’t even exist.

That’s the situation for the followers of Jesus after the crucifixion. They had left everything to follow Him – fathers, mothers, homes, employment. For they thought He was the long-promised Messiah, the descendant of David who would restore Israel and reign forever. They had seen His power; they had heard His words – no one had ever spoken like that! When the religious authorities tried to trap Him, time and again He turned the tables on them. So those authorities didn’t even dare to ask him anything else publicly.

Jesus had called His followers out of their simple, normal lives. He had raised their hopes in the inevitable advance of the Kingdom of God. And He told them they would judge the twelve tribes of Israel! Simple fishermen, a tax collector!

But now, they have seen this almighty King stripped, scourged, and scorned. They have heard the soldiers mock Him as King of the Jews. They saw Him hanging on the cross. They saw Him die. They saw His lifeless corpse.

This dashes all their hopes. All their dreams. Now they just look like fools for leaving everything and following an itinerant preacher – indeed, a madman.

So they despair – as you may well have despaired on your day of greatest pain.

That’s the women’s state of mind as they come to Jesus’ tomb early Sunday morning. In the midst of their despair, they intend to do what they can – to honor Jesus’ lifeless body.

But they find the tomb open! And Jesus’ body is not there!

Luke tells us two men – presumably angels – then speak:

“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you … that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” (From Luke 24:5-7)

The women return to the apostles, reporting what they’ve seen. But Luke tells us, “These words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them” (Luke 24:11).

Peter goes to the tomb and finds it empty – but does not see Jesus.

Later that day two followers are walking away from Jerusalem. The risen Jesus overtakes them, but they do not recognize Him. Still very much in despair, they describe to Him what has happened and then summarize their present state of mind: “We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). The implication: They no longer have that hope. The empty tomb has not raised them out of despair.

They go on to say that others went to the tomb and verified the women’s report, but conclude, “Him they did not see.”

What does Jesus then say?

He says what He says to us on our hardest days, when we lose all hope: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25)

Foolish! Why?

We all are foolish for at least three reasons when we despair:

  • First, because we have the prophets. Over many centuries the prophets tell us that God has advanced His great plan, overcoming human sin and human opposition, culminating in the descendant of David who lives a righteous life, suffers and dies for the people, rises from the dead, and promises to return to usher in His eternal Kingdom when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). Nothing can keep Him from fulfilling that plan.
  • Second, because we have Jesus. The two followers are in despair because those who went to the tomb did not see Jesus. And they are looking at Jesus when they say that! They see Jesus! Yet they are completely ignorant of His presence.
  • Third, because of what Jesus Himself said. The angels tell the women, “Remember how He told you.” He had said that a disciple would betray Him. He had said He would mocked, beaten, and killed. And He had said that He would rise from the dead. He told them all this ahead of time.

So, friends: In our times of great pain, we must hold on to these same three truths.

We too have the Scriptures and the evidence from biblical history that nothing derails God’s plan. Furthermore, we today have the privilege of seeing more clearly than those disciples how God is working out His great plan through church history and through missions.

We too have the presence of Jesus via His Holy Spirit. The night He was betrayed, Jesus told His disciples, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, … he dwells with you and will be in you” (From John 14:16-17). So when we feel abandoned – He is right there with us. We too must recognize Him, like those disciples in Luke 24.

Finally, we too have the words, the promises of Jesus.

Think about this: Suppose I promise to give you a million dollars on Monday, and then a thousand dollars Tuesday.  You would have reason to be skeptical about that promise! But suppose somehow I fulfill the first half of the promise – I give you a million dollars Monday!

What then do you expect to happen on Tuesday? If I fulfill the promise to give you a million dollars on Monday, surely I’ll give you the thousand dollars on Tuesday – you will have no doubt! I’ve kept the hard promise – surely I’ll keep the easy one!

Think, now: Isn’t the promise to rise from the dead the hardest promise to keep anyone has ever made? Jesus kept the hard promise. He lived up to His word. Shouldn’t we then believe the rest of His words, and trust Him to be speaking truthfully? He’s fulfilled the million-dollar promise – surely He’ll fulfill all the thousand dollar promises He made.

Jesus’ resurrection verifies all God’s promises.

These include:

  • “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
  • “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3).
  • “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5, Joshua 1:5).
  • Via the Apostle Paul: Nothing in all creation “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (From Romans 8:39).

So this Resurrection Sunday: Commit yourself not to be foolish and slow of heart to believe:

  • Remember the story of the Bible, God’s great plan;
  • Remember that if you are in Jesus, you have the downpayment of your inheritance, the Holy Spirit within you;
  • Remember Jesus has fulfilled the most difficult promise; He will surely fulfill all the others.

We experience many sorrows and sins in this world. There are times for weeping, times for mourning. Jesus’ followers were right to weep at the crucifixion.

But Jesus is risen, just as He said! Therefore, we should never despair, for we have a certain, living Hope. Trust in His plan. Trust in His presence. And trust in His promises.

[This devotion was preached at the sunrise service of Desiring God Community Church on April 20, 2025]

 

Is Anything Too Hard for God?

Is anything too hard for God?

God tells the prophet Jeremiah that He is going to punish the people for their rebellion against Him. Indeed, He promises to destroy Jerusalem and the very temple that pictures His dwelling in their midst. But He also promises that decades later He will gather the people from where they are scattered and show them His redeeming love; they will be His people, and He will be their God. It is in this context that He says: “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27).

If God can do that – if He can punish and He can redeem, if He can scatter and He can unite, if He can use human empires both to destroy according to His plan and to build up according to His plan – is there anything He cannot do?

No. Nothing is too hard for Him.

Consider a few of the many Scriptures that make similar claims:

  • [When God promises that a 90 year old woman who has been barren her entire life will bear a son fathered by her 99 year old husband] “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14a)
  • [Similarly, when the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she, a virgin, will give birth to a son, and that her elderly, barren cousin Elizabeth is already pregnant] “For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37)
  • [Job speaks after God has displayed and spoken of His power, glory and wisdom] “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2)
  • [When there are hundreds of thousands of Israelites in the wilderness and God has promised them meat. Moses is skeptical]  And the LORD said to Moses, “Is the LORD’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.” (Numbers 11:23)
  • Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Num 23:19b)
  • Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. (Psalm 115:3)
  • Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. (Psalm 135:6)
  • For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? (Isaiah 14:27)
  • Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. (Isaiah 40:28-29)
  • “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’ . . .. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.” (From Isaiah 46:9-11)
  • All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:35)
  • [When a man asks Jesus for healing for his son, after Jesus’ disciples were unable to heal him]  “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”  Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:22-24)
  • [When the disciples wonder if anyone can be saved if it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom] Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

So the claim of Scripture is all-encompassing: God has authority over conception, over illness, over sin, over rebellion, over repentance, over faith. We need His help always, in all areas – including our faith!

But God is not our all-powerful genie in the bottle, at our beck and call, who grants us any wishes that we might ask. He has already declared the end; He will accomplish His purpose. Our purpose will not stand; God’s will.

And so consider the way that Jesus Himself prays as He notes the Father’s unstoppable power:

“Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)

Jesus shrank back from the horror of the cross. He knew that protecting Him from the Jewish leaders and the Roman governor was simple for the Father. God could thwart their plans; that was possible for Him. But Jesus also knew that God’s plan, God’s will, included His going to the cross. He knew that the end God had stated from the beginning – blessing all nations through the seed of Abraham, covering the sin of rebels by the sacrifice of His Son, ushering in an eternal Kingdom of righteousness and peace ruled by a descendant of David – Jesus knew that this glorious end required that He go to the cross. And so He went.

So God is more powerful than the illness you face, than the sin that tempts you, than hardness of anyone’s heart; God is well able to comfort every sorrow, to grant wisdom to the foolish, to bring rebels to repentance. Nothing is too hard for Him.

Therefore, trust this almighty God! He works all things together to fulfill His great plan. Whatever trials you are facing, however weak you are in yourself, look to Him! Delight in His sovereign power, which He wields for the good of His people and the glory of his Name.